Presidential Polls Top Talks between Salam, Hariri and Franjieh

Prime Minister Tammam Salam received in separate meetings at the Grand Serail on Saturday Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh and Mustaqbal Movement chief Saad Hariri.

Hariri briefed Salam on the preparations for the electoral session scheduled for Monday to elect a president.

Franjieh and Hariri did not make a statement after their meetings with Salam.

On Friday, Salam received presidential hopeful head of the Change and Reform bloc head MP Michel Aoun, who met with leader of the Progressive Socialist party Walid Jumblat in Clemenceau before he met the premier.

Salam has not made any statement so far since Hariri's endorsement of Aoun for the top state post.

Hariri formally endorsed Aoun's nomination last week.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Hariri had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

The supporters of Aoun's nomination have argued that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.